We Need to Talk About Kevin

A film by Lynne Ramsay

Movie review

by Kevin Laforest – February 9, 2012

This adaptation of Lionel Shriver’s 2003 novel blurs our notions of time and reality, plunging us into an impressionistic, hallucinatory experience we assume to be the troubled state of mind of a mother (the amazing Tilda Swinton) after her son Kevin (Ezra Miller, previously seen in Afterschool) goes on a killing rampage at his school. As we catch glimpses of her raising Kevin from a baby who never stops screaming to a creepy infant to a downright evil teenager, we’re faced with what must be a parent’s worst nightmare. Lynne Ramsay delivers a masterpiece of an art-house horror film in which each moment is rivetingly visceral, notably thanks to striking imagery, jarring sound design and an unnerving score by Radiohead’s Jonny Greenwood.